Unlike in Lebanon or in Iran, where Neda Agha-Soltan became a symbolic figure of resistance, there was little mention of the women who took part in the protests in Tunisia, or of the victims of the security forces response, such as the woman who was shot and killed in Nabeul.

What explains this disparity? This was very much a media event, and perhaps this in itself was part of the reason. In the Arab world, and to a lesser extent in French media, there has been a month of in-depth coverage of a developing story, but in English-language media, the real coverage began only as Ben Ali began making concessions. Consequently, there was no narrative to frame events, so a disproportionate amount of the analysis has focused on the new media’s role in the uprising, from Wikileaks to Twitter.

According to UNIFEM, Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous and restrictive places to be a woman and an estimated 87 percent of women are victims of domestic violence.

“If this is indeed true, it is due to the 30 years of war that has instilled and molded violence in the lives of the people in Afghanistan,” Shakila Hamidi, program manager at Women for Afghan Women, told MediaGlobal. Women are especially vulnerable in areas of armed conflict.